Purest of Deaths
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: The old methods are always favourable.


Purest of Deaths  
  
She had been knocked out in a flurry of black clad figures, swooping down on her at her home in Oxford, and her parents didn't even realise she was gone until a Ministry official came with the news.  
  
She hadn't expected anybody to sneak up on her in a place like that, but then again she should have seen it coming. A Death Eater attack on a muggle- born witch was a long time coming, and she could have taken a good guess that it would have been her,  
  
But nobody ever sees their own death coming.  
  
And as she woke up in a mud brown cage she somehow understood that this was it, these would be her last moments. Being watched by Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy and the Death Eaters.  
  
"Miss Granger, how nice of you to join us."  
  
The rest of the Death Eaters laughed maniacally, though Hermione could not see what was funny, even if they were on Voldemort's side, they were just laughing to please their master. But she had to be strong, she was a Gryffindor.  
  
"What do you want with me.?"  
  
"Where you go, Mr Potter will follow. He is the one I wish to kill, your death will be inconsequential to me."  
  
Draco Malfoy grinned at her from between the bars and she felt sick rising in her stomach, but she refused to show her weakness.  
  
Her face became expressionless and she was determined that if this was it, if this was where she was going to die, she would go down with dignity.  
  
She looked up and directly into the eyes of Lord Voldemort and she laughed.  
  
"A while back all of us said that if we were captured we would not ask the others for help, for their own safety. Harry won't come. So kill me and I hope you enjoy it."  
  
"Insolent girl."  
  
Voldemort sent the Cruciatus curse at Hermione and she writhed in pain, but she would not scream.  
  
She would not.! She would not...  
  
"I won't scream for you.!"  
  
"Brave girl. It is no wonder Minerva thought so much of you."  
  
Voldemort must have known that the death of Professor McGonagall had hit Hermione hard. McGonagall had been her friend and had only just begun to teach her to be an animagus.  
  
Hermione, you idiot.  
  
She had nowhere near finished her course in Animagi but she was sure she could do it. She focused on animals, she had never transformed so she didn't know what she would become.  
  
What if it was something that just meant Voldemort would have a wider target.?  
  
And how was she supposed to focus on something so difficult with a large circle of jeering Death Eaters. It was hopeless.  
  
She couldn't even apparate. Damn that law and damn the Ministry for inventing it. The tears welled up in her eyes but she would not cry, it would how Voldemort that he had won out right. She would not allow him a final victory over her.  
  
"Harry will kill you Voldemort.! Soon he will come for you and he will win, just like the seer said.!"  
  
They were all silent. She had struck them.  
  
"Sybill Trelawney is the seer in question, I believe. I knew Sybill, and I was sorry to kill her, but she's not exactly a very accurate fortune teller. Miss Granger, you and I both know that Sybill couldn't even predict the weather if she had a barometer."  
  
"She predicted your first defeat. And she'll be right about this defeat.!"  
  
I'm so sorry Professor Trelawney, we should have believed you.  
  
He sent a bright green light at Hermione and she expected immediate death, but was surprised when nothing happened.  
  
Then she saw the flames.  
  
They were creeping around the wooden cage that she was locked in and she was sharply reminded of a time when witches had been burned at the stake. Perhaps this was the first time they had ever burnt a real witch.  
  
It was no consolation.  
  
She could feel the heat reaching her body and she still didn't scream.  
  
She felt her mind begin to cloud and her eyes fell shut. She welcomed the unconsciousness seeping across her.  
  
But she was still there in pain.  
  
She wasn't unconscious.  
  
"Oh no dearie," she heard just over the crackling of the flames and the cheering of the Death Eaters.  
  
"You're not going anywhere yet." 


End file.
